Page 245 - Neglected Arabia Vol 1 (2)

F NEGLECTED ARABIA

Twelve girls had four years of study and over one thousand women
had come out of seclusion to attend this conclusion of their period of
school life. Every girl is commandeered to teach next year; one
lias been appointed to a principalship. Much they have not learned,
but they can read and write and cipher, and this opens for them .1
new world. Henceforth, even if tour walls should largely bound their
material world, four walls cannot keep uut- the printed page, which
means the inflow of ideas, and ideas must have outlets. -
Ln»t week u physician uddresaed (lie women and to hear him thev
were obliged to nit closely veiled, lie talked im hour and it was vei \
Nunn. After lie left, the head of the school said, "lluw warm you
are and how you must have suiVercd.” The answer was, “If we want
to learn we must suffer.’’
1 noticed a woman conversing with the principal. Her abah had
fallen from her henna-stained head and the face was thin. She had
come to inquire whether a group of women who wished to reorgam/r
a society started last year could have the use of a room in the building
The purpose of the society is to aid the women of Iraq in every way
jKJSsiblc. I am invited to attend the meeting.
Of the eleven women who attended the first meeting of this
Woman’s Society eight were Moslems, three were Christians. < )i
the three Christians, two were Armenians from Mardin now exiled,
splendid products of former Mission schools there. Of the eight Mos­
lems, lour were of the very- highest families and I read power in the
1 eyes of one. My heart prayed in this meeting. These women want
u> do, they feel this mighty stir, which is as intense as it is inarticulate
and formless, and wise leadership may lead them into light. They
have turned to a few Christians for help and I watched with joy the
unobtrusive manner in which this help was rendered. The Moslem
treasurer cannot write, so the Christian keeps the books and the Moslem
the money; there is no one among the Moslems capable of acting a*
secretary so the Christian fills that office.
I was quite strange to them and hoped for their friendship. They
allowed me to talk to them and I told them of Jane Addams and 1 lull
House and how Hull House grew according to the understanding of
the needs of the community. Four women’s eyes were fastened upon
me with steady interest and to four women came a glimpse pf a
ruiiMruelive service. Then came the ardently desired invitation to join
them and they said I was their sister. As we left the yard this small
group turned to me and said “You will come next week?” and l
answered, “Yes.”
It is one thing to read about a nation awakening; it is another to
be in that nation’s very center and see and feel this rousing. To see
these* doors flinging open and to hear the cry for help and to know that
now is the crucial time, and to be circumscribed by lack of means and
inadequate supply of workers causes profound regret. It is American
help that this part of the world wants because America has certainly
by her tardiness in helping to right the world’s wrongs proven beyond
a doubt that her interest over here is not political. What a chance for
America here in Iraqi